


When She Sees Me

by detectivemcgeek



Category: The X-Files
Genre: F/F
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-01-07
Updated: 2016-02-02
Packaged: 2018-05-12 10:18:54
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 3
Words: 11,139
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5662717
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/detectivemcgeek/pseuds/detectivemcgeek
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Scully and Reyes meet in high school. Super high school AU friendship/lesbian vibes.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. I Stick With Real Things

Dana Scully walked into the school on the first day of her junior year. It was a cool day for mid-August in Maryland and she was wearing a too-big flannel that Mulder had left at her place one day over the summer. She tried to give it back a few times but he insisted she keep it, saying it looked good on her. She rolled her eyes to herself as she walked to her locker, thinking about the way he leaned to the side, his half smile on his face – his flirting face. They both know he has a crush on her, has had one for the past two years, and maybe at one point she thought she felt the same way when she kissed him on new year’s eve, but that point was long gone and she couldn’t think of him as anything more than her very best friend. Being with Mulder didn’t seem right for her.  
The hallway was crowded as she made her way toward her locker. She wanted to put away her book bag and was a little dismayed to find out the locker was on the bottom row. She pursed her lips. Another year of getting kicked around the hallway by shuffling students.  
She bent and the small hairs that didn’t fit into her ponytail fell forward, tickling her temples and her cheeks. The little curls framed her face with the little curl of bangs, and even more tiny red waves stuck out at the nape of her neck. She regretted this haircut.  
She turned in the combination and put her things away, except for her notebook and textbook for her second class. She closed it, stood up, turned around, and came face to face with a grey t-shirt and a familiar scent. She craned her neck up to see Mulder smiling down at her.  
“Hey, Scully,” he said.  
“Hey, Mulder,” she said, smiling back.  
“Ready for death?” Mulder asked as they started walking, a giant looming skyscraper and his tiny sidekick disrupting the flow of hallway traffic. His growth spurt last year made him visible to everyone in a thirty-foot radius.  
“Is that a threat or a promise?” Scully asked, unfazed, her tiny frame maneuvering through people.  
Mulder thought for a moment. “Both. You’ve got Vlad for physics this year don’t you?”  
“Yes, but I’m actually looking forward to it. It’s my second class of the day, after Spanish,” she said, holding out her physics textbook. “And you know, it might not be that Vlad is a scary teacher. Maybe you’re just bad at physics.” She glanced at him with a knowing look.  
“Ha, psh. Right,” Mulder said. Scully smiled. He didn’t have a comeback for that. “You’ve got B lunch, right?” Mulder asked as they reached the main lobby of the school, where they would part ways. The large open space allowed the other students to disperse out and it felt less crowded.  
“Yup, so I’ll see you then,” Scully said. This is the first year since they’ve been friends that they don’t have a class together. And it was Mulder’s senior year.  
Mulder nodded and turned to look at her.  
“Hey, Scully, where’d you get that shirt?” he asked jokingly.  
“I beat up a homeless guy in the park for it,” she replied completely serious.  
He smiled at her. “It looks good with the haircut, ya know, like a woodsy, outdoorsy kind of girl who can’t be bothered by modern fashion standards.”  
Scully rolled her eyes and smiled wide. “Well that’s the last time I’m letting Melissa cut my hair. And the last time I’m letting you convince me to let her.”  
The warning bell rang, signaling the almost beginning of the school day. Mulder started backing up toward the opposite hallway and he held out his arms.  
“It’s all about the story in the end, Scully.”  
He waved and turned down the hallway and Scully tucked a stray strand of hair behind her ear as she started up the stairs.  
Scully’s first two classes passed by quickly. Her Spanish teacher assured them that third year is the year when the coursework gets more difficult, but it’ll be worth it in the end. The teacher, Ms. Francis, told them that a trip to Mexico was in the works for the end of the year, since the Spanish department has never been able to take a trip but the French language class was able to go to Paris for the past two years and it’s finally our turn to go abroad and we’re not going to let this opportunity pass. Scully was a little excited about that, actually – she’d never been out of the country.  
Vlad the physics teacher did seem scary. He crammed a lot of introductory information into the first class and assigned homework. Maybe this class will actually be hell, Scully wondered.  
She had calculus and then her reading period, half of which is taken up by lunch. She walked into the cafeteria, the smell of ketchup, chicken nuggets, and fries being the first thing to attack her senses. Of all the school lunches, this was probably one of the more pleasant ones, and she was glad.  
She got her lunch and looked around the cafeteria for any sign of Mulder and her friends.  
“Scully, over here!”  
She turned at the sound of Byers’ voice and saw him waving from a few tables over. Langley and Frohike were already sitting with him and she smiled and jerked her head up at them, a “hello” from the other side of the cafeteria. She walked over and plopped her tray down in front of an empty seat.  
“Hello boys, how are you today?”  
“Awful, I think our computer science teacher hates me,” Langley said, crossing his arms over his chest.  
Byers stuck a chicken nugget in his mouth and chewed for a second. “Well, you did try to correct her about three times,”  
“When she was going over the syllabus,” Frohike added.  
“Well what does she know? Did she spend the entire summer hacking into NASA’s database? I don’t think so,” Langley said, wagging his finger in the air.  
“That doesn’t make her the bad guy,” Byers said.  
Scully looked fixedly between the three boys. “So, senior year not starting off as well as planned.”  
“Not quite. But I have to say, my French teacher this year is tres jolie,” Frohike said. “However, foreign language requirements suck.”  
“You know, Spanish might have been more useful for you,” Scully said, dipping a fry into her ketchup. “For when you’re wanted by the FBI for breaking into government databases and you need to hop the border into Mexico.”  
“Ah but you’re forgetting, dearest Dana, that we’re closer to Canada than Mexico. I’ll go there. They speak French there.”  
Scully chuckled. “Glad you’ve got that all figured out, Fro.”  
Suddenly, Mulder appeared at the end of their table with a tray of three servings of chicken nuggets. Just nuggets, no fries, no milk or water, or brownie.  
“So you guys know how Mr. Bar told us last year he and his wife were moving out of state? Well I just saw him in the parking lot outside talking to Ms. Hart. So here’s my theory. He and Hart were getting it on and Mrs. Bar found out and threatened to destroy the school unless Mr. Bar left with her. However at some point over the summer Mrs. Bar goes crazy in a murder suicide gone wrong and now Mr. Bar is back, but not really back, since he’s not a teacher here anymore, but before he went into hiding he needed to say goodbye to Hart.” He dramatically reached for Byers’ hand. “Oh Jules, I’ve missed you so but I’m afraid we must now part for good. I won’t forget you!” He threw his arm over his forehead and looked wistfully into the distance. Frohike and Langley were in fits of giggles.  
“Why would he need to go into hiding?” Scully asked. “I thought you said murder-suicide.”  
“I said murder-suicide gone wrong, Scully,” Mulder said, sliding his tray over to the seat next to her and sitting down.  
Langley high-fived Mulder while Scully chuckled petulantly and rolled her eyes.  
“That’s what we like about you, Mulder. Your ideas are weirder than ours.”  
Mulder smiled widely and looked at Scully and she just stared at him, half disbelievingly and half like she definitely could believe what just came out of his mouth.  
“So how’s Vlad doing?” Mulder asked Scully.  
“Ooooh, you’ve got Vlad this year,” Langley said. “Hate that dude. And that class. Maybe not so much the dude as the subject matter but they aren’t mutually exclusive.”  
“He’s doing well, Mulder, thanks for asking. And I checked the third tile from the back like you said. Your pencil smiley face is still there.”  
“Yes!” Mulder pumped his fist and high-fived Langley again.  
“I swear, you boys are twelve,” Scully said.  
“But we’ve got perfect aim,” Mulder said.  
Scully almost couldn’t believe her eyes when she looked up in physics and saw eight pencils lodged more than halfway into the ceiling tile.  
“Man, I love chicken nuggets,” Mulder said, popping another one into his mouth.  
“We can see, man. They let you get away with that?” Langley asked.  
“Well, the lunch man likes me, don’t know why, but I ain’t complaining,” Mulder said.  
They finished their lunches and talked about their days, thoughts about the coming year, stuff they did over the summer. Mulder and Scully spent it mostly together, besides the month that Scully took out at a lake with her family. She insisted nothing special happened but Mulder noticed a bit of a glow about her. When she came back to town, she was more tan, a little more slender, a little more agile, and a lot of the time in the first few days he would catch her smiling, off somewhere in a memory. He didn’t push though, and when she said it was probably the sun and the nature and getting away from the city, he believed her.  
Two of the three Lone Gunmen went to science camps at different universities across the country and Byers went to spend the summer in Oregon with his dad and his side of the family. They all stayed in touch via e-mail and text, however, Scully was mostly limited to snail mail, thanks to poor reception in forest areas.  
The bell rang and they shuffled off back to their classes. Mulder had miraculously consumed the three plates of nuggets and he threw away the Styrofoam plate remains while Scully drained back the last of her water and tossed the bottle in the recycling bin.  
“See you after,” he said, waving as the throng of students rushing in and out of the cafeteria double doors pushed him out as Scully went the other way.  
The rest of the day passed without incident, the classes being exactly what Scully expected. This year may not be so bad, she mused. It seems like Spanish would be the only class she would need to put extra effort in, but it always was. The class schedule alternated days, so she had four new classes for tomorrow. It was a new scheduling thing the school was trying, and sitting in a class for an hour and half didn’t seem like such a bad idea in theory. In practice, it felt a little more than a bad idea.  
She said she’d meet up with Mulder later because Melissa said she’d pick Scully up from school on her way home from classes at the community college. Scully waved goodbye as Mulder drove away in his car and the Lone Gunmen left campus, walking off toward Frohike’s house that was about five minutes away on foot.  
Over fifteen minutes, the number of students standing in front of the school dwindled down to two and Scully checked her phone for the seventh time. She decided to call her sister.  
“Hey, Missy, did you forget you’re picking me up?” Scully asked when Melissa answered with a sleep-riddled voice.  
“Wha? Oh, no, definitely not. I’m almost there, give me five minutes,” Melissa said, trying hard, but not succeeding, in stifling the yawn. “See you soon, sis.”  
They hung up and Scully sighed. If Melissa was asleep, it’d probably be about fifteen minutes or so until she arrived at the school. Scully had long since taken off the flannel and tied it around her waist, the heat finally catching up with the time of day. Her white Maine t-shirt she got this summer, with sleeves just over her shoulder and big print over the front, was tucked under it and into her jeans. The tiny ponytail left stray hairs to stick to the back of her neck from the slight perspiration. She decided to go back into the school and enjoy the air conditioning and maybe grab her physics book to get a head start on the homework.  
She walked down the empty hallway, her footsteps echoing despite how quiet she tried to make her steps. The janitor was mopping down the hall and he waved a greeting at Scully as she got to her locker. She retrieved her book and turned around to head back to the main hall, but her foot landed on a piece of paper and she slipped, sending her physics book flying and the rest of her down to the ground.  
She yelped and landed with a thud. She looked around to see if anyone had witnessed her embarrassment, but the janitor had already turned the corner.  
“Hello?” a timid female voice called out. “Are you alright?”  
Scully heard the voice and looked around, but there was still no one in the hallway. She waited for a few seconds to pass before she reached for her book and started to stand up.  
“Hello? Is anyone out there?”  
Out there? Scully wondered. She decided to answer.  
“Hello?”  
“Oh hi! Thank goodness. I kinda need some help in here,” the voice said.  
Scully was still very confused.  
“What? Where are you?” She looked around but the hallway was still empty.  
“In locker 462,” the voice answered.  
Scully looked taken aback for a moment before scanning the lockers around her for the right number.  
She got to the bottom locker and peered into the small grate at the top. She saw movement in there, a flurry of dark brown hair and part of a face.  
“Hello,” the voice said. “The combo is 36, 04, 22.”  
Scully twisted the lock and pulled it open. She opened the locker door and a brunette girl rolled out. She had her knees tucked up against her chest and was scrunched down a considerable amount, considering how tall she was when she stood. She stretched her arms over her head and twisted her waist from left to right.  
“Oh my god, thank you so much, I don’t know what I would have done if you didn’t walk by just now.”  
“Um, no problem,” Scully said, her eyes wide. She couldn’t decide how confused or intrigued she was at this very moment. “Uh, h-how did y-you?” Scully gestured to the locker.  
“Oh, well” the girl grinned. “My friends bet me twenty bucks I couldn’t fit in there. And the twerps put the lock on when they shut the door. So now, here I am!” She held her arms out beside her and shrugged.  
Scully scoffed. “Some friends.”  
“They didn’t mean any harm, I’m sure. They’re just like that. I probably deserved it honestly, I ran one of their bikes off a cliff last week.”  
Scully’s eyes widened and it took every nerve in her body to stop her from saying, “What the fuck?”  
The girl could see it in her expression, though. “It’s a long story.” She noticed Scully’s book lying open on the floor. “Oh here,” she bent to pick it up and hand it to her.  
“Thanks,” Scully smiled with closed lips. “What would you have done if I wasn’t here?”  
“Oh, I wouldn’t have gone down without a fight,” the girl said. “Someone would have heard the screaming,” she joked.  
Scully snorted out a laugh.  
“I’m Monica, by the way,” the girl said, holding out her hand.  
“I’m Dana,” Scully said.  
“Very nice to meet you, Dana. Sorry it had to be like this. But again, thank you so much.”  
“No problem at all,” Scully smiled back at Monica.  
Scully’s phone vibrated in her pocket and she answered. Monica waved a silent goodbye at Scully as she pressed the phone against her ear, and she waved back as she muttered a greeting into the speaker. She turned her back to Monica as she spoke.  
“Missy? Ok yeah, I’m coming outside, see you soon.” She hung up and stuck it back in her pocket. She turned around, but Monica was already gone.


	2. Usually Facts and Figures

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Scully and Reyes have a class together

Morris, Patterson, Reyes, Scully…

Scully found her assigned seat in her English literature class and sat down. She put her notebook on the corner of her desk and fiddled with some loose pages from her first class. She looked around at her classmates, most of which she’s had classes with since she was seven. Ten years later, she barely knows any of them past their name and the things she overhears in conversation. She had some friends in middle school, but the start of bra-wearing and boy crushes created a rift between them.

Scully still isn’t well endowed in that area, and she’s only ever like two, maybe three boys, if you count Mulder. She remembered being teased by Melissa when she found Scully’s journal when she was eleven, the name “David” scrawled in hearts on several pages in her journal. That marked the end of the month-long period she tried to keep a journal and effectively ended the crush. And she remembered Ben from third grade, who was so nice and wore glasses and had short blonde hair and only ever wanted to hold her hand. He moved away during the summer.

Scully looked up to find a familiar face looking down at her from next to her desk.

“Dana, hi,” Monica said, a wide grin on her face.

Scully smiled back. “Hi,” she said, her face lifting.

“How are you?”

“I’m well, how are you?”

“I’m good. English lit,” Monica said, sliding into her seat but twisting her torso to face Scully. “I love this class.”

“Oh?” Scully asked.

“Yeah. Getting lost in tales from years and centuries ago, experiencing things that other people probably experienced, and someone puts it all into a book.” Monica smiled and closed her eyes, inhaling through her nose and exhaling with a sigh. “That’s what really gets me going.”

“What’s your favorite book?” Scully asked.

Monica looked down, slightly shy for a moment, before looking Dana in the eyes again. “Okay, don’t laugh. But, my favorite isn’t really in the classic literature realm, per se, even though it should be,” she said with a tilt of her head for emphasis. “But I –“

The bell rang, and their teacher sprang up from her desk, seemingly as enthusiastic as Monica about English literature. She introduced herself, went over some quick syllabus information for about ten minutes, and then handed out a get to know you sheet for partners for the semester.

“Just pair up with someone within arm’s reach of you, so no partners across the room. Trey and Gomez, I’ve purposely put you two as far away from each other as possible so don’t even think about it.”

Scully looked around to find her classmates shuffling their desks around to turn to their partner. She turned back around, not knowing who she could ask since everyone seemed to already find a partner, to find Monica looking at her expectantly.

“Do you want to be my partner?”

A tiny, slightly taken-by-surprise smile formed on Scully’s lips.

“Sure, thanks.”

“No problem. I like making new friends,” Monica said, flattening her paper onto Scully’s desk and clicking her mechanical pencil.

“So, first question,” Monica said, looking down at the sheet. “What is your partner’s middle name? Mine’s Julieta,” she said, looking up at Scully expectantly.

“Katherine,” Scully said, writing down Monica’s answer.

“Dana Katherine…” Monica looked at the name card on Scully’s desk. “Scully. That rolls off the tongue.”

“Yeah, just like Monica Julieta…” Scully tried to look around Monica at her name card but she couldn’t get a clear view of it.

“Reyes,” Monica said.

“That’s a bit of a mouthful,” Scully joked.

“I’ll admit, it wasn’t very fun learning to write in cursive,” Monica chuckled. “Alright, second question. Where were you born?”   
  
“Um, Annapolis, Maryland,” Scully replied. Monica wrote that down.

“I was born in Mexico City.”

Scully arched her right eyebrow. “As in Mexico? You were born in Mexico?”

Reyes smiled. She never seemed to stop smiling. “Yeah, born and raised!”

“How’d you find yourself here?” Scully asked, curious.

“My family moved here last March, mom transferred up here for her job,” Monica offered.

Scully smiled, and had to admit, Monica being from Mexico was kind of cool. She wrote that down on her paper.

“Um,” Scully said, looking at the third question on the page. “Where is your happy place?”

Monica chuckled and spoke in a low voice. “Oh, Dana, you’re going to have to take me to dinner before I tell you that.”

Scully choked on the air.

“It doesn’t actually say that, does it?” Monica asked, smiling, looking at her own paper. It did. “Well, I think we need to work on Mrs. DuBois’ wording.”

Scully smiled. “She’s got to know what’s on kids’ minds these days.”  
  
Monica smirked. Cheeky.

“If you could speak another language, what would it be?” Monica asked the next question.

“Well, I’m taking Spanish right now, but that seems to be going nowhere, I have no idea how I’ve survived two years already. But maybe, I don’t know, Greek? Latin?”

“Something old, gotcha,” Monica said, writing down Scully’s answers. “And I speak Spanish, so if you ever want some help, just let me know.”

Scully tilted her head to the side, a small blush tinting her cheeks. “Oh, thanks. Maybe I will.” She won’t.

“I think I’d like to maybe speak Russian? I really love Russian folklore, so I guess reading it in the native language would be really interesting,” Reyes pondered, her eyes wandering. She pursed her lips. “Or maybe Chinese, just for the hell of it.”  
  
“I think learning Chinese would have to be more than a “hell of it” kind of task to take on,” Scully said.

“Oh definitely. But it’ll definitely be hell.”

“So you’re a masochist, then?”

“Only cause it feels so good,” Monica said, her voice dropping low.

Scully narrowed her eyes and pursed her lips trying to hide the smile. Cheeky.

“What are your pet peeves?” Scully asked.

After a moment’s thought, Monica said, “I don’t like know-it-alls, closed-minded people, or when people smack their mouth when they chew.”

Scully cringed thinking about the last one, making a sound in agreement.

“I’m not the biggest fan of cheap humor, when people blindly jump into things, or when people spit on the sidewalks.”

“Ick. I hate that last one too. Add that to mine,” Monica said, pointing to Scully’s paper.

“Where do you want to go to college?”

“Well, to be honest, I don’t know,” Monica said. “I haven’t given much thought to it really. Maybe U.M.? Stay here? N.Y.U., B.U., George Washington?”

“Do you have any idea what you want to study?”

“Me? Hell no,” Monica laughed. “I don’t even know what I’m having for dinner tomorrow. Do you?”

“Um chemistry? I took the class last year and did pretty well in it,” Scully said, biting her bottom lip. “But I’m not sure yet.”

“Ah, science gal. Where do you want to go?”   
  
“Maybe University of Maryland, just stay close for undergrad.”

“Are you going to get a masters degree somewhere else?”

“Um,” Scully smiled tightly. “I think I might want to go to medical school?” She looked down and then glanced up toward Monica. She hasn’t even really talked to Mulder about what she wants to do in the future, but Monica’s eyes were kind.

“That’s great, Dana. Very ambitious.”  
  
“Yeah…” Scully said. “So which school do you want me to write down?”

“Ha, I don’t know. Just put down Brown or some other Ivy League. Lord knows I’m never going there and it’ll sound like I’ve got at least a little ambition.”

“You never know,” Scully said.

Monica smiled, perhaps even a little sadly. “Never say never.”

The bell rang and they walked together to their next class after finding out they both had health and P.E. next. They went into the locker rooms and pulled their gym clothes out of their bags, Scully quickly scurrying into a shower stall to change before more girls could cramp the locker room. Monica went into a bathroom stall and changed into her clothes and by the time she was out, Scully was putting on deodorant amidst a sea of girls in various states of gym uniforms.

They went out to the gym floor and found some boys, already dressed and sweaty, tossing around a basketball and shoving each other in a way that Scully was sure was not allowed. They heard the whistle before the bell and the coach separated them into two groups to do customary running test at the beginning of the year. They had to run 20 laps around the gym for the mile test, or for twenty minutes. Whichever came first.

Scully groaned but Monica seemed chipper about it, a fact that Scully didn’t let go unnoticed.

“Don’t tell me you’re excited to do this,” Scully said disbelievingly.

“Healthy body, healthy mind,” Monica replied, getting up to join the first group. “I also used to do cross country, so I actually kind of like it. Call me crazy.”

“You’re crazy.”

Monica shrugged and got to the starting line as Scully sat down with the second group. Everyone had already broken off into their groups to talk while the others ran, and a part of her wanted to join Monica on the floor, but she also didn’t feel like falling several laps behind this girl she just met and end up embarrassing herself with the mile she didn’t even know if she could do. Why had it been such a long time since she ran?

The coach blew the whistle and started the timer on the wall and Monica took off. She was about the same height as the boys in the class, and running faster than all of them. Scully watched in awe as Monica effortlessly flew through five, six, seven laps, passing some of the slower kids in their class once, twice, three more times than Scully actually kept up with. She finished second to the school’s resident track star and looked at the clock and went over to the coach to tell him her time. Scully watched as he smiled and gestured with his hands, talking to her for a little bit before she turned to join Scully and wait for everyone in the first group to finish.

Monica was still breathing hard as she approached Scully, after having clocked in at 6:03. She was sweating and the strands that had fallen loose from her ponytail were glued to the side of her face and her neck. Her face was tinted pink and her eyes were bright.

“Oh my god?” Scully exclaimed when Monica was in earshot. “Oh my god.” She was speechless.

Monica raised her eyebrows and shrugged, jokingly brushing it off. “Easy bleepin’ peasy,” she said.

It was Scully’s turn to raise her eyebrow. “Bleepin?”

“Sorry,” Monica panted. “I use profanity sometimes after a race when I’m tired and trying to talk. And I didn’t feel like using profanity just now .”

Scully laughed. “That was insane.”

Monica plopped down on the bench next to Scully.

“Alright, Dana, your turn.”

“Hey, I’ve still got about twelve minutes for the first group to officially finish. And I’m going to spend every minute of it dreading what I’m about to have to do.”

“What are you gonna have to do?”

“Beat your time,” Scully said with zero hesitation.

Monica stared back for a moment before rearing her head back and laughing. The laughing turned to gasps and she was wiping either sweat or tears out of her eyes.

“Hey! Why is that so funny?” Scully scoffed, lightly smacking Monica’s arm.

“Dana, I’m sure you’re an incredible athlete and I mean nothing by it. But,” she pursed her lips. “It’s a pretty tough time to beat if you’re not a runner.”

“Who said I’m not a runner?” Scully asked, petulantly putting her hands on her hips.

Monica held up her hands. “Not I.” She clasped her hands and smiled. “Alright. How about if you beat my time, I’ll crawl back into my tiny locker to hide my shame and you can lock it behind me. But if you don’t, you can get into the locker and I’ll do a little dance in celebration?”

Don’t do it, you’re not a runner, Scully. You know you’re going to lose this, do you really want –

“Deal.” Scully was surprised at herself. She should have backed out when she had a chance, but she couldn’t help but want to go along with everything Monica said. She was in too deep and she couldn’t back out now though she desperately wanted to. She was only joking but she knew the day would end with her inside a locker.

They turned to watch as some more students finished.

Monica leaned toward Scully, her eyes still on the track. “Don’t worry about it,” she said. Scully’s heart leapt for a moment, thinking she was going to call off the whole thing. “You’re a little shorter than me, so you should have no problem fitting inside.”

Scully humphed past a smile and Monica laughed.

The coach called the next round of runners, and Scully reluctantly got up.

“Go Dana!” Monica cheered at a normal volume as Scully walked away.

Scully glared over her shoulder.

After she ran, Scully approached Monica, who was biting her fist to mask the giggles.

“That was great, Dana, you had a really good time.”

“8:31.” Scully was heaving and wheezing a great deal more than Monica was at the end of her run.

“Nice and average,” Monica said as they walked to the locker room to change out of their uniforms and go to their lunch period.

“You’re going to have to beat your six minutes at the end of the semester,” Scully said without a hint of pity. “You’re not really going to shove me into a locker, are you?” Scully asked, fearing the worst.

“No,” Monica said, drawing out the last vowel. Scully sighed internally with relief. “Not today, at least.”

Scully retracted the sigh.

They changed and headed for the cafeteria, some watery spaghetti on the menu for today. As soon as they sat down, Monica bit into the small piece of garlic bread that came with the spaghetti.

“I’m so glad we’ve got lunch now. I forgot to eat breakfast this morning and running that was killer.” Monica crunched down on the bread.

“Do you usually eat breakfast every morning?”

“I try to, yeah,” Monica said. “Don’t you?”

“Not really, I forget sometimes and I’m not bothered much by it. It’s a little crowded in my house in the mornings so I just let it slide,” Scully said, thinking about the start of her days, with Charlie darting up and down the stairs before school and Missy taking her sweet time with everything she does.

They ate their food, the low rumble of cafeteria chatter going on around them.

“So, tell me. How exactly did you get stuck inside the locker?”

Monica laughed. “We’re still on that, are we?”

“Were we ever off it?” Scully joked.

“It’s so stupid, you’re going to think I’m a goof.”

“No, I won’t, I promise,” Scully said, placing her hand over her heart.

Monica smiled down at her tray before looking back up at Scully.

“Ok, well. All it was is that I made fun of one of my friends. She’s kinda short, about your height, actually,” Monica joked. Scully feigned offense and shouted, “hey!”

“And she said that being tall wasn’t so great, yadda yadda, bet I wouldn’t be able to fit into a locker. So I did.” Monica smiled proudly.

“Did you ever get your twenty bucks?” Scully asked.

“Ha! Yeah, got it this morning.”

“Are you going to get revenge for her locking you in there?” Scully asked.

“Well, no, I’m pretty sure that was revenge for what I said yesterday, for running her bike off a cliff last week. And before you ask, it was a complete accident,” Monica said, twirling her last bit of spaghetti onto her fork and shoving it in her mouth.

“How would you run her bike off a cliff without also being run off with it?” Scully asked, half joking and half concerned.

“I let go of it,” Monica said with a self deprecating smile.

Scully looked at her sideways and laughed into her spaghetti.

“Now you tell me something embarrassing about you,” Monica said.

“Hey! Why?”

“We have to be equal if this friendship is going to work, Dana,” Monica said, smiling sweetly. “And besides, you’ve seen me at my worst already and I had no choice in the matter.”

Scully’s eyes narrowed but she her smile still peaked past her lips. She thought for a moment.

“Ok, one time I was at a birthday party. A pool party. Do you see where this is going?”

Monica leaned up on her elbows. “Oh yes, I do. But continue anyway,” she said, gesturing for her to continue.

“My little brother was also there, since he was friends with Hillary’s younger brother. Hillary was the one who was having the party, by the way. So she and I were standing next to the pool and Charlie, my brother, was going to go push Hillary in. So he gets over to her and shoves,” Dana held up her hands and mimicked a push with her arms, “her into the pool. But she doesn’t go down without a fight. She reached out to try to steady herself and –“

“Oh god, oh no,” Monica said, cringing to hide a laugh.

“And,” Dana continues, “her hand hooks onto my swim bottoms and,” Dana makes a waving motion with her hand.

Monica looks like she’s in pain from trying to conceal the laughter.

“Go ahead, you can laugh.” Scully said, hiding her eyes in her hands.

Monica’s melodic laughter rang out.

“How old were you?” Monica asked.

“I think twelve or thirteen. It wasn’t my best moment,” Scully said, starting to laugh along with Monica. “But you want to know the worst part?”

Monica nodded, eyes wide.

“When my bottoms came down, it pulled me down with them, but since she was going into the pool, she pulled them right off.”

Monica covered her mouth but her shoulders were shaking with silent laughter.

Scully continued, unable to stop herself from indulging her new happy and pretty laughing friend. “And I had no idea what to do because I was on the ground with my pants off and everyone was looking, so I decide to scramble into the pool. Except when Hillary surfaced, she realized what she had in her hands and threw them back onto the deck like,” Scully scrunched up her face with shocked disgust and pretended to throw bikini bottoms away from her. “So now I was in the pool and pantsless and my bottoms were on the deck.”

“There’s a joke in there somewhere,” Monica said with a giggle.

Scully smiled and rolled her eyes. “Well anyway I had to just kind of float around for about a minute with my hands covering whatever they could cover until Hillary’s mom saw my bottoms and what I’m sure was a mortified expression on my face and she kicked them in discreetly when she handed Hillary a towel.”

“What a godsend,” Monica squeaked out.

“You’re telling me.”

“How do you even come back from that?” Monica was trying to hide her big laughs, her cheeks were red and her eyes were bright.

"I don't think I've ever fully recovered," Scully said dramatically. "I haven't been to a pool party since."

Monica put her hand over her heart. "Poor baby. I'm sorry that happened."

"What doesn't kill you..." Scully shrugged with a smile.

The bell rang to signal the end of this class block. They had brought their backpacks with them from the gym so they parted ways at the cafeteria doors.

"See ya, Dana," Monica said with a wave as she headed in the opposite direction.

Scully smiled and waved back.

After school she met with Mulder at the front.

"Sup G-woman," Mulder said as she approached.

"Hey, Mulder," she said. "Good day?" She said, noticing his smile.

"Guess who sits next to me in math," Mulder said, leaning against the door frame. Scully raised her eyebrow. "Diana." He sighed as she rolled her eyes. "Scully," he tried to coax a smile out of her. "She's not as bad as you think."

Scully side-eyed him. "Maybe she's not Mulder, but I don't get a good feeling from her. She played you once before, unless you've already let that go?"

"She didn't play me, Scully, she got back with her ex. It was completely out of my control."

"But it wasn't out of hers," Scully said. She remembered the summer before her sophomore year well, many texts going unanswered for a few weeks while Mulder fell head over heels for Diana Fowley, class A bitch and Scully's least favorite. She never knew what Mulder saw in her. She led Mulder on for weeks, teasing him and kissing him and making him think he meant something to her. And the day of their second date, she called and told him she had gotten back with Todd. Mulder was sad for the better part of a month. "I just think she's bad news."

"Well, live and let live, Scully." He turned and gestured for her to go first through the door and he followed her toward the parking lot.

"All I'm saying is that this could potentially end in heartbreak," she said.

"The key word here is 'potentially'," Mulder said. Scully pursed her lips.

"Fine, Mulder," Scully resigned. "Just don't come crying to me. It wasn't only that time. Remember last year when she kept flirting with you just to get your psych notes?"

"No."

"And you fell for it like a lost little puppy just wanting to find a home?"

"No."

"Honestly, Mulder, I don't understand why you like her, she isn't even that pretty."

"Oh, really?" Mulder asked.

"Well not pretty enough to be that huge an ass. You've got to be at least an eight, and she's not."

"Well where would you rate yourself on this scale, Scully, from one to ten?"

She looked him straight in the eye. "Eleven."

Mulder raised his eyebrows with a pleasantly surprised smile but didn't question it. Secretly, he agreed. It wasn't such a secret to the the Lone Gunmen, who also agreed. Scully was probably the prettiest girl in school, but Mulder knew she was too good for him or any other dumb boy in this town. She deserved someone who didn't have their head, literally, up in space all day. Someone smart and good looking and interesting who could keep her company when she talked academics. She should have someone who was interesting even beyond academics and interests and ethics, who was talented and could share a passion with her. Maybe Mulder could be that guy in a few years, but right now all he's been interested in is baseball and aliens.

"So you can be an ass?" Mulder asked.

"I only use my powers for good." Scully smiled.

"How sweet of you."

"Case in point."


	3. When Informations In It's Place

Scully doesn’t know why, but when she’s in gym with Monica, she has an uncontrollable urge to do her best. She never cared to be on teams before, never wanted to pick up a ball and throw it at someone, never really ever had an urge to get super sweaty. It’s all different now, and whenever she sees Monica, sweat dripping off her chin, hair sticking to the side of her face, her grey t-shirt damp halfway through class, she wants to try. 

And it doesn’t help that Monica enables her. She’s established herself as strong and capable and a much more talented athlete than anyone assumed. She’s made friends with the boys in the class who put up good competition as to who can get the sweatiest at the end of class. She’s the envy of the female athletes, wondering where the hell she came from. And Monica always picks Scully for her team. 

“Dana over here!” 

They were playing basketball, a sport Scully thought would be the least likely to find herself in, but here she was. The class was divided up in different halves of the gym, so there were about eight people on each team. Dana looked over toward Monica’s voice and saw the bright orange jersey their team had to put over their gym shirts. She stopped dribbling and brought the ball up to her chest to prepare for the long pass when suddenly – BAM.

Scully stumbled and twisted and landed hard on her side. She heard the whistle blow and the squeak of sneakers. She didn’t realize she had closed her eyes, but when she opened them, Monica’s face was close to hers and her hand was on Scully’s shoulder. 

“Dana, are you okay?” Monica sounded a little frantic. There was a girl standing behind Monica, an apologetic look on her face, and she was speaking quickly as well. Scully assumed she’s who ran into her. 

Scully nodded and sat up with the help of Monica’s hand. Monica stood up and allowed Scully to pull herself up, but Scully faltered when she put weight on her left leg. Monica threw Scully’s arm over her shoulder and helped her hop to the bleachers. The whistle blew and the games continued and people stopped staring. 

“Hey, you okay?” Monica asked as Scully winced, straightening out her leg. 

“Yeah, I’m good. I think I just landed badly.”

Monica laughed. “I could hear the plop from fifteen feet away.”

Scully tried to laugh but ended up grimacing as she shifted her weight. 

Their teacher approached them. 

“Scully, you alright?” Coach Francis asked. 

“Um, yeah, it was just a hard fall.” 

“Your knee looks a little swollen,” he said, nodding at her knee. He was right, it was bright red and looked slightly larger than her other knee. “Reyes, do you want to take her to the nurse’s office to get some ice?” 

“Sure, I can do that,” Reyes said, standing up to help Scully get to her feet. She took Scully’s hand and put her arm around her neck again. Reyes walked slowly as Scully tried to walk, but ended up slightly hopping out of the gym. 

“I’m really sorry, you don’t need to take me to the nurse, I can go on my own,” Scully said, trying to put weight down on her injured knee. She gasped and immediately brought it back up. “I’ve always liked hopping.” She smiled through the pain. 

Monica returned the smile and shook her head. “Dana, it’s really no problem. I’d rather you make it there with no more injuries than this.”

“It’s going to take three years at this rate,” Scully said, resuming the little hops. 

“Would you be okay with me carrying you?” 

“What?” Scully asked shrilly.

“I can carry you, it might be quicker that way,” Monica elaborated. 

Scully thought about the layout of the school. The nurse’s office was down a flight and in the science wing. 

“It’s pretty far, I can’t ask you to do that,” Scully said, trying to brush off her suggestion.

“I’m offering,” Monica said. “But I don’t want to do anything you’re uncomfortable with.”

“Oh, I’m not uncomfortable with it,” Scully said, running out of objections. “Okay, we can try it for a little bit, but if you get tired just tell me.” 

With Scully’s arm still over her neck, Monica leaned down and scooped her up into her arms effortlessly. Monica bounced Scully to adjust the weight and Scully wound her other arm up over Monica’s other shoulder. 

Scully was acutely aware of the proximity of their faces. 

Monica’s arms felt confident and strong and Scully almost didn’t notice when they walked past the stairs. 

“I’m just going to the elevator,” Monica said. “I’ve never carried anyone down the stairs before and I don’t want this to be the moment my legs fail me.” She laughed at herself and Scully smiled. 

When they got to the elevator, Scully unclasped her hands and pressed the down button, and they stood there waiting for a few seconds before the elevator dinged. Usually, students weren’t allowed to use the elevator, but this was as good a reason as any. 

“How’s your knee feeling?” Monica asked. 

“Well, I can’t really feel much of it at the moment. It’s just a little tingly and it only hurts when I move.”

“Well, that’s a good sign,” Monica said sarcastically. She was playful and Scully smiled. 

Monica stepped into the elevator and Scully pressed the button for the ground floor. The door closed and suddenly the air felt a little less breathable. The space inside wasn’t uncomfortable, but Scully felt a little less than relaxed. She could suddenly hear Monica’s breathing, and if she stayed still enough, she swore she could feel Monica’s pulse in her neck. Scully became aware of how her hands were clasped over Monica, one hand holding on to her shoulder and the other pressed firmly to the base of her neck. She could feel the dampness of her t-shirt, the stickiness of cooling perspiration. Her eyes traced over Monica’s chin, moving upward to the little bump below her lower lip. Her eyes went up to Monica’s and found Monica glancing down at her. Her head wasn’t bent, but her eyes were on Scully, watching Scully watch her. Scully felt a blush rise up to her own neck and Monica’s eyes quickly went forward. Scully looked down at her bent knees and missed Monica’s small smirk. 

The door opened and before Scully knew it, they arrived at the nurse’s office. Monica eased Scully down outside the door and held it open as Scully hopped through. The nurse swept over to them and excused Monica back to class. Scully turned her head and smiled. 

“If you’re not back before lunch, I’ll grab your stuff,” Monica suggested. 

“Oh thank you, it’s locker 36.” Monica closed the door quietly and walked back to class as the nurse looked at Scully’s knee. 

Scully was standing outside the cafeteria when Monica approached, a bag of ice wrapped around her knee with cling film and a pair of crutches under her armpit. 

“Well, looks like I’m going to have to be off my feet for the next week or so. Nothing’s broken or anything, but I banged it harder than I thought and it’s just caused a lot of bruising and swelling.”

Monica breathed out a sigh of relief. “Oh that’s good, I’m glad nothing’s too bad. I got your stuff for you,” she said, holding up Scully’s backpack. “But I’ll hold on to this for you. Do you want to go change?” She nodded toward the bathroom opposite the cafeteria. 

“Yes please. I smell like my brother.” Scully vaulted herself over to the bathroom door. “Can you watch our for a few minutes? The stalls are small and I’ve got a clunkier leg than usual.”

Monica smiled. “Of course,” she said, handing Scully her bag. After a few minutes, she came out wearing a different, less sweaty t-shirt and her gym shorts. 

“After struggling trying to figure out how to get them off, I decided to just keep them. Whoever’s going to judge me is going to have to fight me about it, and I’ve got weapons,” Scully said, twirling one of the crutches. 

“I’d be terrified,” Monica said. 

They got their lunches, Monica carrying Scully’s tray, and sat down at two empty seats at the end of a long table. It took a moment for Scully to get situated, and by the time she picked up her fork, Monica had shoved three pieces of ravioli into her mouth. 

“You’ve got a little…” Scully began, gesturing to the side of Monica’s mouth. There was a streak of tomato sauce. 

“Oh, oops,” Monica said, grabbing her napkin and chewing quickly before speaking. “My parents always tell me to slow down, but I have a tendency to wolf down whatever’s in front of me.”

“Oh me too, especially growing up with three siblings. You eat fast or you don’t eat,” Scully said. “I’ve tried to slow down now that two of them aren’t around at meal times very often, but I revert back to my old ways sometimes,” Scully said, spearing a piece of ravioli. 

“So you’re the third kid?” Monica asked. 

“Yeah. Bill’s 24 and joining the Navy, Melissa’s 19 and doing whatever, I’m 17, and Charlie’s 14. Do you have any siblings?”

“Nope, I’m an only child. I always wanted one though.”

“Really? Why?”

“I just think it would be nice to have a friend at home, you know?”

“Oh, I mean I guess I understand. Missy and I used to get along really well, but then I think we grew out of it.” Scully laughed lightly. “But it’s not all fun and games all the time. There’s a bathroom and a half between the four of us.”

Monica smiled. “Well I doubt they’re as bad as you make them out to be. You’re really lucky to have such a big family.”

After lunch ended, Monica made sure Scully was set up with her backpack that allowed her to move through the hall. They said goodbye and went to their respective classes. Scully passed Mulder in the hall, as she did on these days sometimes. His face lit up when he saw her, but then once he took in the crutches, a fire lit in his eyes. 

“Scully, what happened?” 

“Fell during gym, it’s alright though I’m fine, just a little banged up,” Scully said. Mulder didn’t look satisfied. “I’m fine, Mulder. Promise. It doesn’t even hurt anymore. Although, I should throw this ice pack out.” She noticed it was starting to slosh around in the bag. 

“Well okay, Scully. Glad you’re okay. We still good to hang tomorrow?” 

“After Charlie’s soccer game, yeah. I’ll text you,” Scully said. 

“Good. Do you need any help?” 

“No thanks, I’m good on my own. The rest of my classes are on this floor anyway.”

“Okay, see you tomorrow, Scullz.” Mulder waved as the crowd pushed him away. 

At the end of the day, Scully walked over to her locker to put her books away. Tonight was a no homework night and that meant a no homework weekend, and only the gods above could have blessed this magical day in order for the universe to work out this way. Granted, she was still on crutches and now her knee was sending shockwaves through her leg whenever she moved, but this must be the universe making up for that. 

“Dana!” 

Scully turned at the sound of Monica’s voice. The hallway was still pretty busy but she watched Monica approach, separating the sea of students like Moses. 

“How’s your knee doing?” Monica asked. Scully had been asked this by several students and teachers since lunch and she was a little tired of it by now, but when Monica asked, genuine concern on her face, Scully felt ready to genuinely answer. 

“It’s hurting, but I’ll survive.”

“You tough cookie.”

Scully laughed. 

“Are you doing anything after school?” Monica asked. 

“Nope, I was just going to go home. My sister is picking me up,” Scully said, pushing her locker shut with her crutch. “What about you?” 

“I’ve got a quick meeting with Coach Francis about track try-outs tomorrow, since the season starts soon.” Monica looked at the clock on the wall. “I better get going, but I’ll see you around! Have a good weekend, Dana!”

Ten minutes later, Monica was walking out of the school. The front entrance was nearly abandoned except for a few students and a familiar redhead. 

“Dana?” Monica asked. The figure sitting on the bench turned. “What are you still doing here?”

“My sister was supposed to pick me up, but I think she forgot. And she’s not answering her phone.” Scully said. “I was going to call a friend of mine to give me a ride, but he’s probably at home already.” 

“Were you just going to sit here all night?” 

“I was contemplating hopping home,” Scully joked. Monica laughed. “My mom doesn’t get off work for another hour an a half so I’ve always got that.”

“Well come on, I’ll give you a ride, I’m parked over there.” 

She and Scully went over to Monica’s car. She helped Scully put the crutches in the back seat and held out her hand to get her into the car. 

“Actually, would it cause you great distress to spend another hour with me?” Monica asked, backing out of her parking spot. 

Scully glanced at her out of the corner of her eyes and smiled. “Of course not. Unless that’s the line you’re using to try to kidnap me. In that case, I gotta get home right now.”

Monica laughed. “No, it’s just been a good long week and I think we could both use a milkshake. And I’ve got those twenty bucks burning a hole in my pocket.”

“Oh sure, I could go for a milkshake. Where were you thinking?” 

“Are you in a hurry to get home?” 

“I’m yours for the evening, I’ll just send my mom and sis a text.” Scully pulled out her phone and sent two different texts, one to Melissa, teasing her about forgetting her at school, and then one to her mom, to let her know she’s going to hang out with a friend and she’ll be home for dinner.

Monica drove for a few minutes before speaking again. “It’s just this place I found when I was driving around when I first moved here. I just took this road for about fifteen minutes and found this little diner on the edge of the suburbs. It’s called Rosco’s, after the guy who owns it. He’s a real sweet guy, and his husband is too. They moved here from Indiana about ten years ago when Rosco’s husband got a job as a teacher with the magnet school.”

They pulled up into the gravel parking lot in front of a short building with the commercial diner space on the first floor and apartments above it. The building was a cream color with green trimmings. There were fairy lights around the door that were barely visibly blinking in the afternoon sun. There were large windows that made up most of the exterior walls so they could clearly see into the diner. The lot was less than halfway full, and the diner was as well. A faded yellow rectangular sign with the name “Rosco’s” painted on it in red was hanging from two wires off of the banister and swung in the light wind. 

Monica turned off the engine and rushed out of the car to get to Scully’s side to help her out. She took out her crutches as Scully opened the passenger door and winced as she swung her legs out. She took the crutches from Monica and pushed herself up as Monica moved to close the door. Scully could immediately smell the bacon smell wafting around the area. 

They walked in with the small chime of the bell that hung above the door, their senses hearing the lower murmer of conversations and clink of silverware and glasses. Small square tables were placed seemingly haphazardly throughout the space with metal chairs around the sides, people of mostly elderly age filling up the tables. There was a counter area with stools mounted into the ground, an old fashioned register situated at the end of it with receipts and stickers stuck out at different angles. The walls were a light blue that reminded Scully of the sky, and the sunlight streaming into the room gave things a warm and clean glow. There were picture frames on the wall behind the counter going all the way up to the ceiling, different pictures with different people, most of them featuring one repeating character.

“Monica!” 

A tall man with a barely-contained afro underneath a baseball cap came out from what Scully assumed was the kitchen. He wiped his hands on a towel that hung from an apron tied around his waist and went over to the edge of the counter.

“Rosco! How are you?” Monica asked, her face brightening. Scully watched as she walked over to the counter and fist bumped Rosco. 

“I’m good, little lady, just business as usual. I haven’t seen you in years!”

“Now that’s exaggerating, he’s exaggerating,” she said as a side note to Scully. “It’s only been a few weeks. I’ve been getting settled in at school and I’m actually considering joining the track team.”

“About time you put those quick legs of yours to use. You know, if you want to come back, there’s always a spot open for you. Never had a better-received waitress by the masses.” 

“I’ll consider it, Rosco, I really will. It was great working here, but I’m not sure yet how much time I’ll have.” Monica said sincerely. 

“So school is good, classes are good? Meeting nice people?” He said with a nod toward Scully. 

“Yes, actually! Rosco, this is Dana. Dana, Rosco.” 

“Nice to meet you,” Scully said, smiling and shaking his hand. 

“Nice to meet you too. What happened?” He gestured toward the crutches. 

“I just fell today, but I’m okay. Monica helped me out a lot,” Scully said with a smile toward Monica. 

“Well what can I get for you ladies? Monica, strawberry milkshake with extra whipped cream?” 

“You know me so well.” 

“Anything for you Dana?” 

“Um, the same I guess,” she said, reaching into her pocket for the five dollar bill she usually kept on her. 

“Oh no, it’s alright, I got you, Dana,” Monica said, quickly fishing out her money and starting to hand it to Rosco. 

“It’s alright ladies, on the house today,” Rosco said with a wave of his hands. “Just have a seat anywhere and I’ll have them out in a minute.” 

“Can I get fries too?” Monica asked, half joking. 

“Then that will be two dollars,” he said. Monica handed him her bill and he gave her change quickly. “Just take a seat,” he said with a smile. He turned away and disappeared behind the curtain that separated the main room from the kitchen. 

Monica led Scully to the booth at the back corner of the room next to one of the huge windows and made sure she was sat down comfortably before seating herself on the opposite bench. 

“So you worked here over the summer?” Scully asked. 

“Yeah, I was just talking to Rosco back in May and he mentioned he needed some help because one of his waiters went back home for the summer from college, so I said I could do it. It was a great job, actually, I had a lot of fun. I didn’t think I would since everyone always says not to work in food, but this is a nice little place. I actually know most of these guys pretty well,” Monica said, pointing at the different people scattered around the room. 

“You should come back then! It seems like it would be fun.”

“I’m thinking about it.” Monica said, resting her elbow on the table. “I just don’t know what I’ll be up to this year. But it would be good to start saving money for college.”

Scully groaned. “Don’t even remind me about that. Now I’m starting to think I should get a job. Now.”

Monica leaned back and laughed. “No pressure though, we still have two years.”

“Here you go ladies, two strawberry milkshakes, extra whip. And an extra cherry each.” Rosco set down two pink milkshakes in tall glasses and winked in Monica’s direction. “Don’t tell Hal.” 

“Thanks, Ross,” Monica said, pushing one toward Scully and pulling the other toward her. “If I don’t end up coming back to work here, how would you feel about having Dana?”

Rosco turned and put a hand on his hip as he sized Dana up. 

“She’s great, and smart, and so so pretty,” Monica gushed. Scully blushed. 

Rosco thought for a moment. “As long as she’s off the crutches and can roll around in a pair of skates, yeah, sure, why not.”

Dana’s eyes went wide and Monica barked out a laugh. “He’s kidding! He’s only kidding, you don’t actually have to wear skates.” Monica shot Rosco a playful glare. 

“Well, if Monica likes you, I’m willing to take a chance. And I wouldn’t mind having the both of you if you like. The more the merrier.” Rosco smiled at the two of them and then walked back to the kitchen. 

Monica smiled at Dana and then smiled into her milkshake, using her fingers to pluck at the stem of the cherry popping out from the mountain of whipped cream. 

“Cheers, Dana. Now you’ve got a prospective job, if all else fails.” She lifted the cherry into her mouth and bit it off. She chewed and swallowed before popping the stem into her mouth as well. Dana took a sip of her shake and the sweetness surprised her.

“Wow, that’s really good,” Dana said before looking up and noticing the odd look on Monica’s face. “Monica, you alright?” 

Monica gave her a thumbs up before relaxing her face and smiling. She used her thumb and pointer finger to pull out the tied cherry stem. 

“Voila,” Monica said, holding it up before discarding it on a napkin. Scully laughed and picked up one of her own cherries and ate it, sans stem. “But yeah, these milkshakes are killer. They’re the best I’ve ever had. And it’s all in the amount of ice cream and syrup.”

“If you’ve got tryouts tomorrow should you really be drinking milkshakes?” 

Rosco arrived before Monica could answer and set down a large plate of fries. 

“Rosco these are huge!” Monica exclaimed. 

“Well, there’s two of you,” Rosco smiled at them and winked at Monica again. “Don’t tell Hal.”

“Would he really get in trouble with Hal if you told?” Scully asked. 

“Nah, Hal’s chill. He gives me free food too and says the exact same thing,” Monica picked up a fry and bit off the end of it before quickly taking a sip of her milkshake. “That’s really hot.” She fanned her mouth with her hand. “And looks like you have to take half anyway.” 

“Don’t mind if I do,” Scully said, squirting ketchup on the side of the plate and dipping in a fry. “But are fries and milkshakes the best pre-tryout food?” 

“Definitely not, but I’m not going tomorrow.”

“What? Why? I thought the coach loved you?” 

“He does, which is why he said that I didn’t have to come. It’s not a big deal anyway, it’s just for people who haven’t done track before to see what they can do, and since coach knows what I can do, and I’ve told him what my events are, he says I don’t have to come till practice next week.” 

“Oh that’s good!”

“Why don’t you try out?” 

“Did you see me run in gym that first day or am I the only one who remembers that?” Scully asked. 

Monica sprinkled some salt over her side of the fries and laughed. “No, I remember. And you did well.”

“Not ‘join the track team’ well,” Scully said smartly. 

Monica made a pacified smile. “Alright, okay, maybe running isn’t your sport.”

“Do you do any other sports?” Scully asked, curiously watching as Monica picked up three fries and dipped them into her milkshake before eating them. 

“I went through the big ones, basketball, soccer, a brief stint in football, but I was always a little clumsy with the ball so I dropped those quickly. I played softball for a few years until, um,” Monica hesitated for a second, quickly masking her emotions. Scully didn’t notice. “I just lost interest. And then I joined track.” She took a long sip of her milkshake. “What about you?”

“My dad tried, and failed, to get me to do basketball. I think every third grader at some point plays basketball,” Scully laughed. “I’m better behind the books.”

“Ah, see, I can tell.”

“How?”

“Well, when you read something, you have a tendency to hold things closer to your face than other people, even though you’re not squinting. And your natural gaze is just a little lower, as it would be if you were sitting and reading a book.” Monica nonchalantly shrugged her shoulders and ate a fry. 

Scully stared at her for a moment, brow furrowed. 

“Bullshit.”

Monica laughed. “Yeah, and also you’re the only person that takes their notebook out of their bag during class. And the only one I’ve seen who actually uses their textbooks.”

Scully’s smile grew until she was chuckling. “You’re so full of shit,” she said, picking up her spoon and scooping up a large amount of the whipped cream and eating it. She noticed Monica flinch and she quirked her head. Monica tilted her head back and laughed. 

“I thought you were going to launch that at me,” Monica said, still laughing. 

“I can’t do that, not in Rosco’s respectable establishment,” Scully said, feigning offense. 

“Well, it’s a good thing you didn’t,” Monica said, playing along. “Otherwise who knows what I would have done? Maybe just gotten up and driven away and left you here, you and your crutches and nowhere to go…” She paid special attention to her straw before glancing up at Scully with a grin. 

Scully was about to put a fry into her mouth but tossed it at Monica’s head with a smirk instead. 

“Drink your milkshake, Reyes.”


End file.
